Rarest Coins You've Seen in Non-Collector Accumulation?
Singapore
Posts: 578
It seems like most every family has a few old coins handed down through the years or a couple of gold coins on a charm bracelet or something.
For my family it was the requisite circulated common date morgans and a 2.5 Indian.
Most interesting coins I've seen was recently when I was visiting some friends and somehow the topic got onto coins (hard to believe, I know) and they remarked that they had inherited a few old coins from an Uncle. And (this is the part where I started to get a little nauseous) rather than leave them in an old box, they had cleaned them up and put them into a diplay case so they could be viewed and enjoyed.
The Uncle had about 3 dozen coins all early US pre-1800 incuding half cents, wreath and liberty cap large cents, a flowing hair half dollar, etc. (alas, no 1794 dollar) all in what I would say was VF - AU shape worth some pretty good money. Unfortunately, after surviving intact for 200+ years, they had abbrasively cleaned and polished them ("because they were hard to see") and put them in a frame.
Too bad, but still the rarest most interesting coins I've ever seen turn up in the hands of a non-collector.
For my family it was the requisite circulated common date morgans and a 2.5 Indian.
Most interesting coins I've seen was recently when I was visiting some friends and somehow the topic got onto coins (hard to believe, I know) and they remarked that they had inherited a few old coins from an Uncle. And (this is the part where I started to get a little nauseous) rather than leave them in an old box, they had cleaned them up and put them into a diplay case so they could be viewed and enjoyed.
The Uncle had about 3 dozen coins all early US pre-1800 incuding half cents, wreath and liberty cap large cents, a flowing hair half dollar, etc. (alas, no 1794 dollar) all in what I would say was VF - AU shape worth some pretty good money. Unfortunately, after surviving intact for 200+ years, they had abbrasively cleaned and polished them ("because they were hard to see") and put them in a frame.
Too bad, but still the rarest most interesting coins I've ever seen turn up in the hands of a non-collector.
Singapore
0
Comments
<< <i>The Uncle had about 3 dozen coins all early US pre-1800 incuding half cents, wreath and liberty cap large cents, a flowing hair half dollar, etc. (alas, no 1794 dollar) all in what I would say was VF - AU shape worth some pretty good money. Unfortunately, after surviving intact for 200+ years, they had abbrasively cleaned and polished them ("because they were hard to see") and put them in a frame. >>
OH.. MY.. GOD!
I'll be right back. I have to throw up!
Now that's a story I could have lived without hearing.
On the other hand, it makes coins of that type and date, which are treated properly, worth that much more in the long run.
Tyler
sincerely michael
One day, my dealer said he got a another call on it. The guy insisted it was authentic, so the dealer told him to bring it in. He brings it in, and it looks authentic. Dealer sends it to PCGS, slabs as AU58, later sold in auction for somewhere in the $25k-$30k range.
a lustrous AU...
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
<< <i>Singapore.. did you inform them of the error of their ways? >>
Matt -
The short answer is yes. Their response was that they didn't care because these were more of a 'remembrance of their Uncle' as opposed to a coin collection -
Having said that, It was clear that they had absolutely no idea how much they were really worth until I told them.
While it would be more entertaining to say that my friends went wack-o as soon as they realized that they had scrubbed and polished away thousands of dollars of numismatic value (not un-like one of those poor old women on Antiques Road Show who decided to refinish her 240 year old chest-of-drawers and then gets slammed by those bizarro identical twin blond guys), the fact is they took it in stride.
These people have money and frankly the $25 or $50 grand they lost wouldn't materially change their lives -
The truly bad part is that the coins were cleaned, I believe, by the guy who made the custom frame they're in (as opposed to a coin curator) and look, as you'd expect, totally unnaturally shiny and awful.
Nothing quite like the look of an old copper coin thats been polished into a state of horrendous orange-pink.